Charisse Coleman’s older brother, Russell, was shot to
death in 1995 during a robbery at the store where he
worked in Shreveport, Louisiana. Russell’s killer is
now on Death Row in Angola. “I was against the death
penalty before the murder, and nothing that happened
has changed my opposition. Do I feel anger?
Of course, anger and a never-ending sorrow.
But my sorrow is not for Russell or myself or my family
alone. It is for the upwardly spiraling frenzy of
violence swirling all around us. How do we put an end
to that? I just can’t justify executions when I
believe they make that larger problem worse. At best,
the State’s decision to kill in order to show that
killing is wrong is a hypocritical, ineffective act.
At worst, it inflames the very problems that led to
violence in the first place. Who better than the
State to say, ‘The killing stops here?'
Charisse is currently a writer and teacher living in Durham,
North Carolina. She recently received a North Carolina Arts
Council Fellowship to further her work on a book about
the changes wrought by her brother’s murder.
Links to Charisse’s Journey:
